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Making Home and Garden Chores Fun for Kids

If you spring it on your child that it’s time to clean the house from top to bottom, they will likely disappear. Although yard work and cleaning chores require attention, you don’t need pay your children to motivate them to help out. By making home and garden chores fun, your children feel excited about cleaning and yard work day. Since you won’t need to spend money on a lawn service or cleaning service, use the extra money to reward everyone with a pizza night. Whether you stay at home or work outside the home, motivate your children to achieve a sparkling house and well-kept yard.

Inventing a special theme

Just as you come up with themes for birthday parties, invent creative cleaning day themes. You can tie the theme into the reward as well. During the holidays, let your children dress up as elves. Have fun putting on a Mrs. Santa Claus outfit. For the reward at the end of the day, make holiday cookies or let them open one Christmas present. Other times of the year, turn cleaning into a treasure hunt or adventure.

Turning it into a race

Another way to make cleaning and yard work fun for children is to make it a timed event. Give prizes to the child who cleans his or her room the fastest. In many cases, it’s the child who keeps his or her room tidy throughout the week that wins. Making it a race encourages daily maintenance. The winner gets to pick a favorite movie to watch as a family.

Tackling yard work

When tackling yard work, provide your children with age-appropriate tools. For example, many stores sell rakes and snow shovels that are the right size for children. Encourage them to dress for the weather. Some kid-friendly and safe outdoor chores include raking leaves, sweeping, watering plants and weeding. Children also love to lay mulch.

Depending on the age of your children, avoid going too crazy with the cleaning games. For example, avoid games that could easily cause your child to slip and fall such as using their socks as mops for the soapy floor. Turn on fun music for kids to get everyone in good spirits. Other ideas for getting your children to help with home and garden chores include asking them about their favorite household jobs. You might feel surprised to learn they love to sweep or can’t wait to dust the living room even if you didn’t treat them with pizza and movies.